BubbleStream

Rod Raglin

The BIG PICTURE - A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic

Synopsis

Freyja is a young. ambitious photographer.
By chance she takes pictures of demonstration that turns deadly. Powerful people, try to to suppress her photos with threats and bribes but she perseveres. People close to her are compromised. Freyja is not.
The pictures influence the outcome of an election but things don’t change. Freyja leaves the country on assignment to photograph the Mexican drug war. Her lover is murdered by the cartels. She discovers that the cartels have a connection back home.
Freyja returns home to expose the corruption. Again her camera plays a significant role. She succeeds with the help of friends she’d previously written off.
Freyja realizes not everything is black and white, and how you view the big picture depends entirely on your perspective.

Author Biography

I am a writer, photo/journalist and paid facilitator of creative writing circles.
My latest novel, The BIG PICTURE - A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic is self-published and now available on Amazon at
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00LTXGD58
I have also e-published three novels; Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients. These works comprise the stand alone series entitled ECO- WARRIORS.
The stories are contemporary romances with subplots that address important environmental issues.
Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, these three novels,
http://devinedestinies.com
I blog about ‘Writing – the experience’ at
http://rodraglin.wordpress.com/
Read my current work(s) in progress at
http://wattpad.com/RodRaglin

Author Insight

When you need to talk

Do you find it therapeutic to talk about what's bothering you? Freyja always thought it was a character flaw until now. She resented people who dumped their problems on others. Sure, maybe it made them feel better, but what about the recipient of all their emotional garbage? Now she needs to talk or go crazy. Do you keep your problems to yourself or are you into personal "drama"? Does it help?

Book Excerpt

The BIG PICTURE - A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic

The need to talk to someone about Miguel was making Freyja desperate. The unspoken words choked her, the repressed feelings welled up in the throat like bile. She didn’t want sympathy, she didn’t need understanding, all she needed was to tell the story, to bear witness to what had happened.

Members of her family were compromised. Would they turn away from their benefactor? More likely they would find some rationalization for maintaining the status quo. After all, Gunnar did save her life. He couldn’t be that bad.

Poppa alone would protest but the stress would put his health in further jeopardy and Freyja felt guilty enough about her lack of support.

Arni had always been her best friend, just about her only friend. They shared everything but not anymore. He shut down when she criticized Gunnar.

Why didn’t she have more friends? Mallory had called her judgmental, a prude. Maybe she should lower her standards, hang out with people that were amoral. That wouldn’t bother her so much if they were at least interesting. Freyja found most people boring, their lives filled with trivia, appropriate for Facebook but not much else. Most women her age were superficial, lacked passion and intensity. Rather than masters of their fate they were conforming automatons. Would she want to share her pain with someone like that? What would be the point?

Mallory was different. She’d also suffered at Gunnar’s hand. She would listen, but because she was Mallory, she’d be dispassionate. Mallory wouldn’t be burdened by a friend’s grief, and by not being so, Freyja could tell it freely, truthfully, and be done with it.